Stiles Points: Mark Daigneault Should Still Nab Coach of the Year Honors

The Oklahoma City Thunder have made another significant leap in win total in large part due to Mark Daigneault. Despite a recent three-game skid, the Thunder bench boss should take home the Coach of the Year Award.

Feb 10, 2024; Dallas, Texas, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault reacts during the / Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Progression isn't Linear, Stack good days, run your race, having a 0-0 mentality -- you can rattle off Mark Daigneault-isms until the cows come home the way old-timey baseball fans can spout out Yogi-isms. Intertwined in the company lines is a culture that the Thunder bench boss has cultivated that has led to two straight seasons of massive leaps in win totals.

While in charge of the newest NBA rockstars taking over the league's landscape at the same pace as the British Invasion in the 1960s, Daigneault has seen the team's win percentage improve by +.369 in the last four years, including a +,187 leap from the 2022-23 season to 2023-24's campaign which already features 52 wins with five games to play. That markup in winning percentage would place the Thunder's head coach 27th all-time among award recipients.

After finishing runner-up for Coach of the Year honors last season -- while surprisingly being shut out of Coach of the Month awards to this point in the year -- it is Daigneault's turn to take home the Blue Ribbon.

Sitting with the best odds for the honor according to FanDuel (-270), there should not be much of a debate among writers whose name should sit atop their ballots in a matter of days.

Sure, they can stress over the Most Valuable Player Award, or who is the best defender in the league, or worry about the power they wield with the ability to alter a player's earnings with a stroke of the pen, but the Coach of the Year call should not keep voters up at night.

Daigneault's squad made a 16-win improvement a year ago to earn a spot in the play-in tournament as one of the League's Cinderella stories, but they never turned back into a pumpkin.

Already seeing a 12-game improvement from last year's surprise run with five games still needing a decision, the Thunder are nearly mathematically locked into a top-three seed in the West after needing help to secure the tenth seed a season ago.

Despite suffering their first three-game losing streak of the season on this East Coast swing without their top two players, the Oklahoma City Thunder head man has a better case than any other sideline pacer in the Association.

While Chris Finch, Joe Mazzulla, Jamahl Mosley and others have had a quality season at the helm, Daigneault's stewardship has shocked the NBA world yet again.

With many wondering if the Thunder could even grab a top six spot in the wild, wild west and Vegas setting the bar at 44.5 wins, one of the youngest teams in basketball pulled another rabbit out of their hats.

Though, this is no magic. This is built from core beliefs instilled in those 22-win Bricktown boys, seeds that have now sprouted and bear fruits building toward a sustained run of success.

It is incredibly hard to fool Vegas two years running and even harder to climb the ladder out West, but Daigneault's been able to pull it off. It is time for the league's most incognito instructor to take the stage front and center.

Stiles Points

• The OKC Blue will take on the Stockton Kings on Sunday night on ESPNU for the right to advance to the NBA G League Finals.
• While Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is out for the road finale as he rehabs back in Oklahoma City, Jalen Williams has been upgraded to questionable. Typically, when the Thunder tab a player as questionable they suit up.
• Sunday will be a class reunion of sorts with Vasilije Micic, Tre Mann, Aleksej Pokusevski and even Davis Bertans playing a part in the Hornets rotation. With the Thunder needing to snap a three-game slide this game has more stock than it otherwise would have.
• Elvis Movies have really held up better than their original reviews would suggest. Viewed as a failed career at the time a typical Presley vehicle is exactly what the world needs more of.

Song of the Day: Carolina in my Mind by James Taylor.

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